The present invention relates a coin stacking apparatus which conveys coins edge-wise and stacks coins one by one.
When a number of coins are to be packaged, it is required to arrange the coins properly into their stacked state prior to the packaging.
One of the prior art coin stackers for such a purpose is shown in Japanese Laid-Open patent application No. 58-171318. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the coin stacker is arranged such that coins C delivered horizontally from a conveying section 1 fall and are received in a receiver section 21 into their stacked state. The receiver section 21 includes a pair of endless belts 4 extending along the length thereof and arranged opposed to each other. Each of the endless belts 4 has support members 22 extending from the surface thereof and adapted to support the stacked coins C. First of all, a pair of associated support members 22 on the endless belts is positioned at the top of the receiver section 21. Coins C are then placed one by one on the pair of associated support members while at the same time the endless belts 4 are downwardly moved as shown by arrow (d) in FIG. 4 such that the associated support members 22 will gradually be moved downwardly by a distance corresponding to the thickness of one coin. On completion of stacking, the associated support members are moved outwardly around the turns of the endless belts at the lowermost position of the receiver section 21 as shown by arrow (e) in FIG. 5. As a result, the stacked coins C will be discharged downwardly from the receiver section. At the upper part of the receiver section 21 there are arranged a free roller 23 for re-positioning each of the coins C delivered horizontally from the conveyor section 1 into its forwardly and downwardly inclined position, a guide member (roller) 24 for picking up the leading end of the forwardly and downwardly inclined coin C and a control member 25 adapted to impact the leading end of the picked-up coin C such that coin C will fall into the receiver section. Thus, the coin C will fall into the receiver section with its leading end being positioned upwardly. In such a manner, jamming created when the trailing end of the coin C in question impacts the leading end of the next coin C can effectively be prevented.
However, such an arrangement of the prior art coin stacker requires a complicated process in which a coin C is inclined forwardly and downwardly by the free roller 23 and the leading end of that coin C is picked up before it impacts the control member 25 so that the coin C will have fallen into the receiver section. This tends to limit the speed of the process. At the same time, the apparatus tends to be complicated and increased in size.